nTune

DampCat · 13 May 2007 at 12:16

Hello. Ive had my system up and running for a couple of weeks now, and since ive reseated the CPU once to make sure that everything is ok, ive figured its had enough time to settle and i can start clocking.

I know -jack all- about clocking to be honest, and whilst searching for decent info about clocking my 7900GS (dont ask) i found someone pointing to nTune. Is it ok to use? It seems to have everything right there for me to use. Both my GFX card and Motherboard are nForce "ready" (i hate using that word) so i dont see why it would be any worse than doing it in the bios?

mishima · 13 May 2007 at 12:19

nTune is fine to use for overclocking your nVidia card. I overclocked my 8800 with it few months back, need to overclock again sometime!

DampCat · 13 May 2007 at 23:41

Ok, im all clocked out! a million crashes and resets later, this has happened:

FSB: 267 -> 275 (+ 2%)
AGP/PCI-E Bus: 2500mhz -> 3550mhz (+42%)
GPU Core Clock: 500mhz -> 601mhz (+20%)
GPU Memory Clock: 700mhz -> 745mhz (+6%)

No idea if that's any good! running a P5n32-E Plus SLi and Gainward Bliss 7900GS with an E6300. I know its not the best clocking hardware.

Any tips?

Edit: Has apparently pushed my CPU from 1.86ghz to 1.925ghz.

SooTyLaD · 14 May 2007 at 08:16

nTune is good but i'm not sure on the procedure to keep the overclock... sometimes upon restart the o/c would still be in place other times it would have reset and need doing again... weird :confused:

mishima · 14 May 2007 at 09:32

DampCat said:
Ok, im all clocked out! a million crashes and resets later, this has happened:

FSB: 267 -> 275 (+ 2%)
AGP/PCI-E Bus: 2500mhz -> 3550mhz (+42%)
GPU Core Clock: 500mhz -> 601mhz (+20%)
GPU Memory Clock: 700mhz -> 745mhz (+6%)

No idea if that's any good! running a P5n32-E Plus SLi and Gainward Bliss 7900GS with an E6300. I know its not the best clocking hardware.

Any tips?

Edit: Has apparently pushed my CPU from 1.86ghz to 1.925ghz.

Seems like a nice overclock, be sure to keep an eye on the temperatures of your GPU. GPUs usually don't clock very much more than that so I would concentrate on the CPU now, increaase it in increments of 10MHz and keep monitoring temperature. You don't really want to be idling at anything more than 40-45C.

TALON1973 · 14 May 2007 at 09:44

is there any point in having the pci-e bus increased ?? and if so why ??
when i used ntune on my 7300gt ( galaxy ) my core went to 640 from 500

DampCat · 14 May 2007 at 12:32

mishima said:
Seems like a nice overclock, be sure to keep an eye on the temperatures of your GPU. GPUs usually don't clock very much more than that so I would concentrate on the CPU now, increaase it in increments of 10MHz and keep monitoring temperature. You don't really want to be idling at anything more than 40-45C.

By increase by 10mhz, are your referring to the FSB? nTune moved my FSB up to 289 briefly but it became unstable. I've read about "walls" that you hit when clocking that you need to skip past. How would i know if 289 is just a wall? Also, do i need to do anything with my Ram? i've got 2gb Crucial Ballistix PC6400, which seems to clock well from what ive seen around.

What im most worried about it pushing the system up a bit more and it crashing, and then like not loading windows. Cause then i'd be at a total loss as to how to resolve the situation. does nTune link in to the Bios? IE if i break it using nTune can i resolve it in the bios?

mishima · 15 May 2007 at 09:30

With anything like this you should always backup your system. Overclocking always produces risks and you shouldn't hesitate to backup your system before doing any overclocking sessions (good practise to backup regular anyway) in the event of the overclock damaging your operating system.

For the overclock of the CPU and RAM I would use the BIOS rather than that tool. I would also follow a guide for that BIOS/board. What motherboard do you have?

I was referring to the FSB, for that chip you may need to tinker with the voltage to get a higher FSB. Your RAM is good for overclocking, should be interesting to see what you can reach. I would use nTune exclusively for the GPU.

DampCat · 15 May 2007 at 12:48

As you mentioned above (or someone), my settings defaulted back to stock after a shutdown overnight. I guess though i can use the settings that nTune produced and put them in manually.

I increased the FSB, although to what escapes me now. It was enough to increase the clock speed of my CPU to 2.012ghz from 1.86ghz. The temp's didnt increase at all (according to Tempfan and Coretemp) but a quick game of CSS showed some screen tearing on some textures which i hadnt noticed before.

Thank's for your help so far. When i get home i will backup and start fiddling with the BISO options. I have a P5n32-E Plus SLi, and the BIOS seems to come with its own voltage management section. I havent updated the bios at all though so its whatever version was in the box. I'd heard frightening things about flashing.

Is there a reccomended Voltage:FSB ratio or anything? like 5 volts for every 25mhz on FSB? (i must sound clueless!) or is it literally play by ear

Thanks again!

BTW Mish, i got my server case through. It's tres nice. Gonna find someone to cut it for me and i'll paint it and make a progress thread. I just got a new Jeep which will also need some painting so i'll do em both at the same time!